Planning group visits to New York

If you want to travel to New York with a group of people (more than 6), you will need to anticipate almost everything.
I will try to give you the best  detailed tips for your “before & during’’ trip.
The most important thing; define what you want to do, where you want to stay, what you want to visit… Then make your reservations.

What’s the best option to book a cheap flight for a GROUP?

Booking a flight for 6 people or more traveling to New York isn’t that hard. Airlines offer different and better prices for groups, some of them from their own websites.

British Airways: Up to 9 passengers
Lufthansa: Up to 6 passengers
Iberia:Iberia: Up to 6 passengers.
Tap Portugal: Up to 9 passengers.
Delta: Up to 9 passengers
US Airways: Up to 8 passengers…

If you need more than that, best thing to do is to call the airline.

You can book your trip with travel agencies online too.

Expedia: Up to 6 passengers
Flightnetwork: Up to 6 passengers
Edreams: Up to 9 passengers
Travelocity: Up to 6 passengers
Skyscanner: Up to 8 passengers…

First things first: compare every airline or travel agency online and get prices.
To find flight tickets at a good price in high season, buy your tickets early enough.

If you’re traveling during low season, you can just check the rates until you find the right one for you.

I read an article from SKYSCANNER, saying that the best time to buy tickets is 5 weeks before your flight. So, it’s up to you.

What kind of housing you can choose?

Before thinking of getting a room, define your objectives as a group and see what each one of you expect from the trip.

If you are traveling with your family, school, work… the housing will be different. The questions here are if you can share rooms, have dinner or lunch together…

What is the best housing option for a group of 6 or more?

There is an important thing I have to tell you, if you are not going to spend a lot of time in your room. Think of your hotel like a place to sleep well, take a break between visits, and shower. You’ll be spending most of your time in New York visiting the city.

To sleep well: To sleep, it doesn’t matter if you make it in a hotel or an apartment. Both need to have a good bed. But remember the advantages of having a Hotel room is the service (cleaning, room service…). In some apartments the bed is the couch and it could be a little uncomfortable if you are traveling with a group.
In my opinion, hotel wins this criteria.

To rest: I don’t think the apartment can be better than a hotel room and vice versa. So it doesn’t matter.
Hotels and apartments are almost the same on this point.

To take a comfy shower: There you can see the difference between hotels and apts. If you are booking a hotel room, you’ll have a bathroom for two persons (3 or 4 if traveling with kids). However if you choose an apartment, you’ll see that almost every apartment has one bathroom. So you can imagine the chaotic morning or night.
So a hotel is the best option.

To have moments together: If you want to rent an apartment, the living room and the kitchen will be perfect to share moments or planning with the others, to have breakfast or dinner together.
In some hotels, the breakfast is included. You can meet with your travel mates for breakfast in the morning and then share with them your plan for the day, your first impressions of the city…
In this case, the apartment could be a better solution for you.

Don’t spend too much money: It all depends on where you are staying, and its services… The apartment used to be cheaper than the Hotel.
Both are way to different, it’s tricky to compare them here.

Conclusion
For a big group, the Hotel is the best option to take, and is better for the people you are traveling with. If you find an apartment with more bathrooms, then it could be the best option.

What is the best hotel for a group?

Like every destination, if you want to stay in a nice neighborhood or with several activities to do, the price will be higher.

Check on Booking.com . It is one of the best websites to make reservation because it used to have the lowest rates and greatest variety.

If you still don’t know what to choose between all different hotels, you can send me an email and I can give you my recommendations. Remember that in NYCTT you can find articles where I give my review on Hotels I already know.

In New York there are Hotels with rooms for up to 4 people. It is a real good deal because they are very cheap. They are in the Manhattan suburbs, Brooklyn, Queens, New Jersey… Don’t hesitate to read my article in NYCTT about those ones.

What’s the best apartment for a group?

If you are looking for an apartment, you will need to be sure that; everyone has his or her own room, more bathrooms the better.
It all depends on your budget to start too.
If you don’t know where to start looking for an apartment, check on these companies: WIMDU y AIRBNB.

Organize you trip to New York

Once you have your flight and housing booked, start your planning.

For a group trip, you’ll have to be really careful with other’s needs and see what’s better for the whole group. The goal is to make sure everyone is having fun and are able to discover the city in the best conditions.

Because of my experience, I let you know, the best thing to do is to have a plan A and B suiting well to your family, friends or co-workers whishes… You can use my 4 types of plans to please all.

All that I mentioned before is very important to reach one common goal; Have a nice trip. My guess, nobody wants to do the same thing, they don’t have the same physical condition, or same interests like you, but you can be sure that they all want to have a nice trip 🙂

So keep that in mind and do your planning according to this.

Essential elements for your trip

Visit the most interesting places: Statue of liberty, Empire State Building, Top of the Rock, Central Park, The High Line…

Spend at least 2 or 3 hours together: so that you can share your experience and anecdotes with each others.

Eat with your group members once a day: Have dinner with your travel mates, make any recommendations and share your adventures at the end of the day.

And above all, see if your group has the same objectives.

My experience (Alex’ from Les Bons Plans pour un Voyage à New York)

He went on vacation with 2 friends (couple) in New York in one apartment.
Every couple had their own room and there were 2 bathrooms, so there were no problems at all.

In April 2014, he traveled again to New York with his wife and now with his baby, and another couple of friends. He rented the same type of apartment with 2 rooms, and 2 bathrooms.

He also traveled to as a summer camp Principal with 25 teenagers. Back then they had Hotel rooms for 4 persons…

In the end, there are no better housing options for others, you have to check all the different points mentioned above and make sure that you will have an unforgettable trip…

Conclusion

Start planning a trip for a group, is not an easy thing. You’ll have to think about everything and everybody’s needs, from the budget to each one of your group members’ interests.
My advice; have reunions with your travel mates before your trip, to plan it well.
If everything is ready before your departure, you will enjoy your stay in New York.
One more thing… if you have any doubts, don’t hesitate to contact me.